March 9, 2005: Headlines: COS - Brazil: Politics: NGO's: Rocky Mountain News: Brazil RPCV Pat Waak elected Colorado Democratic Party chairman

Peace Corps Online: State: Colorado: February 8, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Colorado: March 9, 2005: Headlines: COS - Brazil: Politics: NGO's: Rocky Mountain News: Brazil RPCV Pat Waak elected Colorado Democratic Party chairman

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-123-27.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.123.27) on Sunday, March 13, 2005 - 12:41 am: Edit Post

Brazil RPCV Pat Waak elected Colorado Democratic Party chairman

Brazil RPCV Pat Waak elected Colorado Democratic Party chairman

Brazil RPCV Pat Waak elected Colorado Democratic Party chairman

Gates backs off on Dems

Ex-party chief won't go to DNC over vote

Caption: Post / Brian Brainerd
Pat Waak traveled the state in her apparently successful bid to oust Chris Gates and lead Colorado’s Democratic party. Photo: Denver Post / Brian Brainerd


By Gwen Florio, Rocky Mountain News
March 9, 2005

Former Colorado Democratic Party chairman Chris Gates softened his defiant stance Tuesday toward Pat Waak, who bested him by three votes for the party leadership.

Gates, who had said he would seek a ruling from the Democratic National Committee, is saying that for now he will let the state party decide if the election was valid.

Gates declined to say why he is taking a different tack, but the national party would have kicked the matter back to the state party anyway.

It wasn't clear Tuesday when or how a recount would proceed.

"Who knows? Maybe she won by more than the disputed number, and we have no need for a challenge," Gates said.

Waak's 187-184 victory came over the weekend at the Democratic State Central Committee meetings. Gates challenged the outcome, claiming that seven proxy votes in his favor were improperly omitted from the count.

Waak's ascendance puts the state party in the hands of a relative unknown, especially compared with Gates, who gained national prominence in November as Colorado's Democrats booted Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature and picked up a U.S. Senate and House seat besides.

The public power struggle between Gates and Waak provoked glee among Republicans and consternation within a state Democratic Party determined to build on the first significant advantage it has held in four decades.

"The rift was there. Now all you've done is change sides. I think we just need to move forward and accept the results," said state Rep. Jim Riesberg, a Democrat from Waak's own Weld County. Riesberg sent a proxy vote for Gates but said Waak "did a good grass-roots campaign. . . . She seems to be a capable lady."

Waak has spent her time since Saturday fielding telephone calls from party power brokers and reporters, as well as trying to kick- start reorganization within a party hungry for a 2006 gubernatorial victory to cement its 2004 results.

She moved to counter assertions that her chairmanship represented a victory for a liberal wing of the party that last year backed political novice Mike Miles against centrist Attorney General Ken Salazar, who defeated Miles in the U.S. Senate primary and went on to win the seat.

"I have trouble with labels," she said. "I really feel at this stage in the political history of the state, we need to concentrate on bottom-up politics" rather than candidates being anointed by party leadership, she said.

Ted Weverka, a Miles supporter from Boulder who had sought to be the party's first vice chairman, said the fact that he was defeated by Gates ally Dan Slater shows that the party's problems involved Gates' leadership, rather than a lingering liberal-centrist rift.

"He doesn't work well with people," Weverka said of Gates.

Waak said she'll try to focus on a unified message for the party.

In doing so, Waak said, she'll draw on her fund-raising and administrative background with groups and agencies such as the National Audubon Society and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

She was deputy campaign manager for Sargent Shriver's 1976 presidential campaign; tried but failed to collect enough signatures to run as a 4th Congressional District candidate in 2002; and is on the Weld County Democratic Executive Committee.

The county is hardly a Democratic stronghold; with Republicans (54.3 percent) and even unaffiliated voters (31.8 percent) outnumbering the Democrats' 24.66 percent of voter registration there.

Greeley Councilwoman Pam Shaddock said, "I think Pat recognized that everybody who is kind of outside the Denver-Boulder area feels like we haven't had as much attention as we need to build the party, and she ran on a platform of inclusiveness."





When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Date: February 7 2005 No: 438 The Peace Corps Library
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RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC Date: March 5 2005 No: 482 RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC
RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter.

March 5, 2005: RPCV Groups in the News Date: March 5 2005 No: 483 March 5, 2005: RPCV Groups in the News
San Diego RPCVs host reception with Gaddi Vasquez on March 6 4 Mar
Alaska RPCVs speak for dividend 4 Mar
Western North Carolina's RPCVs sponsor Africa Night on March 6 3 Mar
Maryland RPCVs lobby their Senators for Peace Corps 3 Mar
Connecticut RPCVs hold fundraiser on March 5 3 Mar
Charles Baquet speaks at Louisiana PC Breakfast on March 4 28 Feb

RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

March 5, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Date: March 5 2005 No: 476 March 5, 2005: This Week's Top Stories
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RPCV's "Kennedy's Kitchen" records second CD 4 Mar
Sam Farr asks Army to reconsider burial policy 3 Mar
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Todd Vetter receives calling during PC service 2 Mar
Sargent Shriver still on Washington's A-list 2 Mar
Photographer Bill Owens publishes new book 2 Mar
Crisis Corps to open new program in Sri Lanka 28 Feb
PC wants new stories for "The Great Adventure" 28 Feb
Ukraine PCV asks "Is Bush right on Iraq?" 28 Feb
Carol Bellamy defends "feminism" in aiding children 28 Feb
John Bridgeland discusses role as Bush assistant 28 Feb
Paul Theroux recalls high times with Hunter Thompson 28 Feb
Elaine Chao Leads Delegation to Uruguay 28 Feb
RPCV reunites with friend after 40 years 27 Feb
Kay Muldoon-Ibrahim's photography on exhibit 27 Feb
Jim Doyle displays political brilliance on tax cuts 26 Feb

March 1: National Day of Action Date: February 28 2005 No: 471 March 1: National Day of Action
Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.
Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler  Date: February 26 2005 No: 457 Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler
Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.
Make a call for the Peace Corps Date: February 19 2005 No: 453 Make a call for the Peace Corps
PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.
Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Date: February 17 2005 No: 445 Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot?
Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.
WWII participants became RPCVs Date: February 13 2005 No: 442 WWII participants became RPCVs
Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.
Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps Date: February 7 2005 No: 436 Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps
The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

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Story Source: Rocky Mountain News

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Brazil; Politics; NGO's

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By Celia Correia (host81-155-81-50.range81-155.btcentralplus.com - 81.155.81.50) on Monday, May 23, 2005 - 8:10 am: Edit Post

Could you add Brazilink - http://www.brazilink.org - to your resources on Brazil please?

Brazilink is an educational website on Brazilian development issues. Our sources are selected by experts and continuously updated by volunteer students worldwide.

Feel free to link to our homepage or any other of our thematic pages. Enhance your site contents by linking to us.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thanks

Celia Correia
Director


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